BootsnAll Travel Community

We currently have various threads about people taking 18 hour flights around the world, threads asking how many countries people have visited and threads on what exotic location to try next. Anyway, it all got me thinking: how much do you guys actually travel within your own country?

I used to go on family holidays as a child - but for the sake of this thread that doesn't really count.

Nowadays I go away to visit friends from time to time, and I might combine this with a day-out somewhere. For example if I am visiting a friend in London I might also visit one of the London museums. But I sometimes feel slightly bad that I have never done any proper travelling here in the UK. Consequently there are many parts to my homeland that I have never seen.

The only travels I do in my own country are of the 'long weekend' vareity. Anytime I have a week off, I go somewhere international. I visited nearly 50 countries before I finally made it to California two months ago. So I've now spent a grand total of 6 days of my life in the western part of this country; 3 days in LA and 3 days in Vegas.

People say I am missing great things in this country, but I am going to Nepal in 2 weeks and think that is time better spent!

An interesting thread.

Up here, people who like to travel abroad are often confronted with just this. "You've been to all sorts of exotic places, but have you seen the West country fjords, Lofoten Islands, all the other wonderful things this country has to offer?"

And they have a point. Might have something to do with knowing myself and my roots before I can really get to know someone or somewhere else, perhaps..., I'm not sure. I travel because I'm curious about the world. And my country is part of that world, so I'm very happy to explore Norway. There's plenty to see and do - and tons of space. But distances are great and it takes as long to get from Oslo to Northern Norway as it does from Oslo to Rome. So it's a bit demanding, both with money and time. For many here, travelling abroad is simply the cheaper, easier (and warmer) option.

I have traveled throughout the US although much of it is due to moving. My dad was in the military so moved with him and then have kept on doing it for university and work afterwards. I've lived in 8 different states and moved within half of them. I'd guess there are only 5 states I haven't been to. Alaska being the one of those that I know I will go to. The rest that I haven't to would be in the northeast.

I think that growing up like that got me used to and enjoying seeing new places and I am now spreading out and going to other countries. I took a year off of work to travel and used three months of that in the US going to places I hadn't been before.

I had some of the same thoughts of why go see other peoples wonders when I hadn't seen my own. Going overseas got me hooked and where I plan on taking most of my trips to from now on. It is still great to have friends and family spread out all over the US to go see for the long weekend trips.

Well, I travel domestically now and again.

When I was 20, I took advantage of a government program that let me live for a few months in each of three places around the country (in my case, Owen Sound, Ontario; St-Jean-Port-Joli, Quebec, and Vancouver, British Columbia), and after that, I took a trip to Labrador to visit friends I'd met through the program.

Since then, the most I've done are long weekend trips to the Rockies, trips to Calgary on business or to visit family, and a business trip to Winnipeg. Nothing exciting. I do have a business trip to Vancouver Island in a few weeks, and a vacation to the same in September.

So, I guess I don't do terribly, but it's not my main area of interest. I feel like there's no rush to explore my own country, because it's not going anywhere, whereas the rest of the world is changing rapidly, and with fuel prices on a long-term upward trend, I'm just not confident that I'll always have the opportunity to travel internationally.

I love exploring the U.S. Once a year we do a week long trip somewhere in the U.S. using our air miles to see a city we haven't visited before.
This year it's Chicago.

The hubby and I were discussing where in the U.S. we want to see in the next few years and I realized my "black hole" is the Mid-West, so our next trips may be to Kansas, Nebraska, and so on.

And I really want to get to the Black Hills area.

But I'm lucky because I've got lots of vacation time so I can do a mix of here and abroad. I think a lot of people have to choose based on limited time off between exploring their own country or an adventure in a far off land.

I must admit that when I think of where I want to go next - I tend to want to go somewhere "exotic" and "far away". And that's not really fair to a large country like the US.

I have been a lot of places in the US - still not all 50 states - but probably about half of them. I've been up and down the west coast. I've spent alot of time in Massachusetts and Maine because of my husband's family.

I used to travel for business alot in the US, so I tended to get to Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Philadelphia quite a bit, plus every few months they'd send me to a company to teach on site, so I saw quite a few middle-sized towns around the US.

With business travel, if one isn't careful you can end up just seeing the same interior throughout a hotel chain all across the US, so I always made it a point to spend at least one evening or afternoon exploring. I never eat in hotels unless I have to, always try to find out some local fav. And if possible I'd always try to fly out late so I could spend one full afternoon getting out to some nearby natural spot. I really feel that helped me get a sense of what's around in different spots in the US.

Plus business travel forces you to spend time in places in seasons you'd never choose if it was just a vacation. I certainly wouldn't normally plan a visit to Niagara falls in January. However, it was really worth seeing with this huge icy tower made from the mist freezing.

One place I really want to get back to in the US is Yellowstone. It's one of the most wonderful natural spots I've ever been to. It's the closest the US has to a game park. And I'd really like to see more of the southwest.

Next year, my husband, son and I are taking a road trip across the southern US from California to Charleston, South Carolina. That should be interesting.

I've traveled far more extensively within the US and Canada than any other single country (since I'm originally from the States but currently live in Canada, I'll touch on both). We used to go on family camping trips every year when I was younger, often involving multi-day roadtrips to get where we were going. It also helps that I've lived both on the east coast (Vermont and Quebec) and out west (Colorado). At this point, I've been to somewhere around 40-42 or so states (the "big names" I'm missing are Hawaii, Alaska, and Texas) and nine of Canada's thirteen provinces/territories.

While I absolutely love international/intercontinental travel (and if you gave me a choice between never leaving North America again or never coming back here, I'd probably choose the latter), I can't get over how vast and varied the US really is.

Also, Utah's national parks are definitely on my top five world-wide "to see" list.

I have family scattered all around the country, so just holiday visiting builds up a lot of travel in my own country. But I also go to new places as much as I can. I'd never ben to New Orleans, but now I have. Alaska, NYC, etc., too. My family are travelling people, though mainly of the road trip variety, and so I've been a bit of everywhere. Except...Colorado. And the Dakotas. And Oregon. And Connecticut. But other than that, I've done a good deal of exploring the US. Even Texas.

I went by car to Wyoming from NJ. I've riden a motorcycle up to Nova Scotia and back to Florida, stopping along the way. I've riden a bike to Tennessee then over to Virginia beach before coming home along the coast(never taking an interstate). I drove to Arizona and New Mexico and stopped along the way. I've been to Michigan and Chicago, and northern and southern California. All in all, I've seen over 30 of my nations states.

However, nowadays I am definitely drawn to exploration of other cultures.